The present invention relates generally to the field of exchanging data using telephone communication systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to sending data from one telephone to another over a telephone network during an active call.
As patented by Alexander Graham Bell, the original telephone was a device that could transmit speech electrically over a telephone network. Accordingly, original telephone communication systems were designed and used for verbal interaction between two callers, the call sender and the call receiver.
Telephone communication systems, however, have advanced greatly since Alexander Graham Bell's original system and since the 1950s there has been a growing demand for data transmission across the telephone networks. This increased data transmission can be achieved on analogue lines using a modem, but since the lines have been developed with speech as the primary traffic the bandwidth is limited and data transmission speeds have to be reduced to maintain correct transmission. The theoretical maximum uncompressed speed of an analogue line is 30 Kbps (30,000 bits per second), though for practical purposes the maximum is 28.8 Kbps above which transmission becomes unreliable. Data compression and digital network technology are methods that have been used to increase data transmission rates over existing telecommunication networks.
As well as the rapid improvements in data transmission over telecommunication networks, modern telephones are now designed to incorporate systems for data transmission, other then oral communication. i.e., paging and text messaging systems. With these systems, a person may use a modern telephone as a data transmitter to send non-verbal data, including numeric and textual data, to another person's telephone. For purposes of this patent application, the term “data” is used to denote any data communicated over the telephone communications system that is not communicated verbally, for example, alphanumeric data such as phone numbers and email addresses.
Data can be transmitted over a telecommunication network either “in-band” or “out-band”. In-band data transmission is achieved through the telephony voice channel, while out-band is communicated through some other type of communication channel. Terminal equipment used today is generally in-band with the exception of ISDN devices. Out-band data transmission is usually used between telephone switches for security and performance reasons.
Data transmission in telephone systems typically uses tone signaling for the in-band terminal equipment, communicating in both directions. The best-known scheme for terminal equipment to network signaling is DTMF (Dual Tone Multi-Frequency), whereby the terminal equipment generates simultaneous pairs of tones to represent each dialed digit.
As well as text messaging and paging systems, the majority of modern telephones are equipped with caller identification (“Caller ID”) systems. With Caller ID, data, including the date and time of the telephone call and the calling party's telephone number, is visually displayed to a called party when the called party is already using his or her telephone and unable to answer the call or is otherwise unable to answer the call. Essentially, Caller ID allows a receiving party to receive data from a sending party when the receiving party is engaged in an active call with someone other than the sending party. However, as with existing text messaging and paging systems, Caller ID does not provide a method for callers engaged in a an active telephone call with each other to exchange data in-band.
One of the biggest advantages of telephone communication systems that provide for the exchange of data, such as Caller ID and text messaging systems, is that the transmitted data, unlike verbally communicated information, can be stored on the receiving party's telephone. This ability to store the transmitted data provides the receiving party with the ability to retrieve the stored information from his or her telephone for use at a later time. For example, a party receiving transmitted data in the form of Caller ID can retrieve the Caller ID data of a party whose call he or she missed and call that party back using the number stored on his or her telephone. Similarly, a party receiving a text message on his or her telephone containing an email address can subsequently retrieve the text message and send an email to the email address contained in the stored text message. Additionally, with many modern Caller ID systems, the party receiving a telephone number on his or her telephone as part of the Caller ID data need only pull up the stored telephone number from his or her telephone's memory and press an appropriate button, such as “Talk” or “Dial,” and the telephone will automatically call the sent phone number without the receiving party having to dial the number.
As disclosed above, there is, however, no method existing in the art for a caller engaged in an active telephone call to send data in-band to another party during an active telephone. Consequently, there is no existing method by which parties engaged in an active call can transfer and store data.
This deficiency in the art exists even though today more and more people are exchanging more and more information over telecommunication systems. In addition to paging and text messaging systems, computers and many other devices are being connected to the existing telecommunication systems to exchange enormous amounts of data. Moreover, with the widespread use of wireless telephones, telephone communication systems have also expanded so that it is now common for people to exchange information over telephone communication systems while driving their cars, walking between destinations or calling from remote locations far from their home or office.
Because of the greater mobility of telephones provided by wireless technology, there is a need in the art for telephones that provides users with the ability to exchange data in-band during an active call. An example of this need in the art is when a caller during an active call desires to send the person they are engaged in an active call with a telephone number or an email address so that the party receiving the information can contact the telephone number or email address after the telephone conversation. Conventionally, as discussed above, the only method of exchanging information in-band between telephone callers during an active call was verbally. The disadvantage of conventional systems that only allow for verbal information exchange during an active call is that if a party desires to subsequently use the verbally exchanged information, he or she must use some method to record the verbally exchanged information. However, because of the widespread use of wireless telecommunication systems, the party receiving the verbal information may be engaged in the active call while in his or her car, walking down the street or calling from a remote location and may not have access to a method for recording the verbally transmitted information. With existing telephone communication systems, in situations where a recording device is not available or the use of such a device is impracticable, the party receiving the information essentially has no option other than to attempt to memorize the verbal information provided during the telephone call.